----------- † 'Moments of urgent need to share, snatched from between the jaws of a jobs list from Satan.' † -----------

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

How the Christmas cards were made!

This year's Christmas greeting was inspired by a seasonal story commissioned from Ed Garland, and written specially for us. When he wrote it I had no idea what I would do, but the words 'kaleidoscope gloop' leapt out and, inspired by an editorial piece I'd done earlier in the year about chemistry and their symmetrical, often tiny circular forms full of detail, the answer came joyfully and easily!

I knew I also wanted to fully indulge my love of print techniques this time and was in recent receipt of a new swatch from a paper company which had the most delicious new metallics. And my ever-patient and creative printer, who can do absolutely anything you ask (after a few practices, of course) got excited about this one.

Here's the original ink artwork for the four kaleidoscopes:
Doll feet, holly, snowflakes; parcels, skulls and ooze;
Bows and rained-on cars;
Umbrellas, clouds, windscreens and mistletoe;
and finally the tangerines, books and Christmas trees, all key elements in the story.

Here's my mockup of the how the finished card would look:

And here, looking like the most exquisite piece of jewellery, is the block for the gold foil on the bauble. I was terribly excited by this.

Foiling tests:

The cards were printed 2-colour litho (some innovation was needed to print the gold on the brown board, because of its already-high gold fleck content):

Then the baubles die-cut:

Finally the cards threaded and three different colours of Swarovski crystal stuck to each one.

Address labels were sprayed gold before printing, stuck on to three shades of sparkly envelope, then the cards hand written with a message and sent out! Oof.

And here for the print lovers is the beautiful old Heldelberg creasing the cards. That’s the multi-skilled Roger supervising (and me chopsing). Just listen to those sounds! (you might need to turn up the volume).

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Who is Inkymole?

Recognised as an early pioneer of hand-drawn type and lettering as image, I've spent my life creating words and pictures for an international client base, with around 400 book covers to my name (I've stopped counting!) With solo exhibitions both side of the Atlantic, I've expanded into murals, installations, music, gallery shows, chocolate and pirate radio, with a bewildering series of adventures along the way.
Our first short documentary ‘Stupid Enough’, made with partner Leigh on the nature of creativity in business, was premiered in Austria in the autumn of 2015.
Clients include:
Playboy, Radio Times, Tiffany, Coca Cola, TWBA, Leo Burnett, Macy’s, Starbucks, Toyota, Crayola, Kelloggs, Co-op, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, Crabtree & Evelyn, Cadbury's, Unilever, Sage Francis, Saatchi & Saatchi, Folio Society, The Natural History Museum and all major US and UK publishing houses.

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